Comparison of desulfurization kinetics of copper oxide sorbent

YU Qing-chun(郁青春)^{1, 2}, DENG Yong(邓勇)^{1, 2}, WANG Fei(王飞)^{1, 2}, FENG Yue-bin(冯跃斌)³, YANG Bin(杨斌)^{1, 2}, XU Bao-qiang(徐宝强)^{1, 2}, LIU Da-chun(刘大春)^{1, 2}

(1. National Engineering Laboratory for Vacuum Metallurgy,
Key Laboratory of Vacuum Metallurgy for Non-ferrous Metal of Yunnan Province,
State Key Laboratory of Complex Non-ferrous Metal Resources Clear Utilization,
Kunming 650093, China;
2. Faculty of Metallurgical and Energy Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology,
Kunming 650093, China
3. Faculty of Science, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650500, China)

Abstract:Desulfurization experiments of CuO, γ-Al₂O₃ and CuO/γ-Al₂O₃ were made in simulated flue gas by means of thermogravimetric analysis. It is found that reaction activities of CuO supported on γ-Al₂O₃ could be highly improved. Desulfurization kinetics of CuO/γ-Al₂O₃ was studied in the temperature range of 250 °C-400 °C and SO₂ concentration of 0.1%-0.9%. The experimental data were tested and compared with kinetics models of volume reaction model (VRM), grain size model (GSM), random pore model (RPM) and pore-blocking model (PBM). Correlation analysis shows that VRM and RPM models do not fit experimental data well. GSM contradicts with the changes in the physical and chemical properties of CuO/γ-Al₂O₃ as the desulfurization proceeds. It is found that PBM is consistent with the change of pore structure of CuO/γ-Al₂O₃ sorbent during desulfurization process and predicts the conversion-time curves of the sorbent well. Meanwhile, kinetics parameters are obtained and discussed.

Key words:copper oxide; desulfurization; kinetics; γ-Al₂O₃